Articles from 2023
694 articles · browse by month or scroll through the year.
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Postscript
Amala On Stanford's Harmful Language Guide
I been following Amala. She’s smart and funny. Click here for her take on Stanford University’s new guide for the elimination of “harmful language.”
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Notes From My Journal
Making Sense of the State of the Union Address
Did you listen to Biden’s State of the Union address? Did you hear what he said about his economic priorities? He said he was going to make America great again by opening oil and gas exploration, reducing the…
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News & Views
Bits and Pieces — February 14, 2023
Bits and Pieces From National Geographic: Nature’s Design for Having Babies How big an issue is age in predicting fertility in women? And what should women do if they hear “the clock ticking”? Here’s a good…
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Worth Watching
Cate Blanchett Conducts Power And Abuse In Tár
Tár Directed by Todd Field Starring Cate Blanchett Released in theaters (US) Oct. 7, 2022 Available on many streaming services, including Amazon Prime K and I have been trying to watch as many of the nominated…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — February 14, 2023
Part XIII: The Backtracking Speeds Up Almost every week since I began writing this series, there has been some revelation in the mainstream media about what the CDC got wrong about COVID. None of them admits…
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Arts & Letters
A Fascinating Story About Art Forgery
Ever since I began to forge the paintings of modern masters to hang in my first-bought house in 1985, I’ve been interested in reading about more accomplished forgers. Here is a story I came across recently…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Difference Between Values and Morals
I found this in a recent issue of Classical Wisdom. It’s a reader’s response to an article about “conscience.” Although values and morals have their own individual meanings, I thought he did a good job of…
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Postscript
Shopping with grandma!
Click here to watch a grandmother/grandson team having a bit of fun on a weekend afternoon.
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Notes From My Journal
Watching the Super Bowl This Weekend?
The Super Bowl is supposed to be the biggest sporting event of the year in the USA. Virtually all my friends and family members watch it. Not moi. I prefer more intellectual sports, like MMA, where contestants…
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News & Views
Bits and Pieces — February 10, 2023
Bits and Pieces A Surprise Gift from Nicaragua to America Nicaragua released 222 political prisoners to the US yesterday, as part of a negotiated deal between the administrations of Daniel Ortega and Joe Biden…
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Worth Quoting
Bill Bonner on Biden’s State of the Union Speech
An excerpt from the Feb. 8 issue of Bonner Private Research… “The tattered coat managed to stand up and deliver a long, pointless speech. It was another triumph of politics… over common sense. And a triumph…
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Worth Reading
Foster
Foster By Claire Keegan 128 pages Published Nov. 1, 2022 I don’t know how I came to have it. But I know how I came to read it. I wrote a review of Small Things Like These, a book by the same author, Claire…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — February 10, 2023
Part XII: More About the Masks On Dec. 20, 2022, I wrote about how inconsistent the reporting was on the effectiveness of wearing masks against COVID-19. I explained how the WHO, the CDC, and the US government…
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Arts & Letters
The Ultimate Fantasy for Art Collectors
This painting by the 17th-century Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger will be auctioned next month in France after having been recently rediscovered. The owners were unaware that it was by the famed…
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Readers Write
Re my essay in Tuesday’s issue, “Is the China Spy Balloon a Hoax?
From DD: “Hi, Mark, “Always enjoy your eLetter. “About the balloon... “As you may well have heard, some people in positions to know believe it’s just China probing our technological, political, and military…
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Postscript
Is Industrial Dance Worth Your Time?
Industrial Dance. I’m not feeling it… am I wrong? Take a look here.
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Notes From My Journal
Is The China Spy Balloon a Hoax?
Can we believe anything we read or hear from our elected officials or the mainstream media? Take, for example, this Chinese “spy” balloon. The idea is preposterous. We are talking about a big, slow-moving…
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News & Views
Bits and Pieces — February 7, 2023
Bits and Pieces (Maybe) Good News About the American Economy More than 500,000 non-farm jobs were added to the American economy last month. More than twice the number predicted by most mainstream economists…
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Worth Watching
Andrea Riseborough Shines In Gritty Addiction Drama To Leslie
To Leslie Directed by Michael Morris Starring Andrea Riseborough, Owen Teague, and Allison Janney Released in theaters (US) Oct. 7, 2022 Available from several streaming services, including Amazon Prime The…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — February 7, 2023
Part XI: The Biggest Mistake I have talked here about many mistakes made in the government’s response to COVID-19. But the biggest was the fundamental assumption that “locking down” cities, states, and…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Argument Over Otters
From National Geographic: They are graceful, playful. They hug each other and give each other shoulder rides. At one time, they were almost extinct. Now they are coming back, and most people are happy about it…
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Fun and/or Interesting
How Motown Changed America
Berry Gordy’s Motown music was a breakthrough not only in the music industry but for society at large, as it was the first strain of African American music embraced by nearly the entire Baby Boom generation…
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Readers Write
Re my Feb. 3 essay on the Tyre Nichols Killing, GG writes
“One thing I suspect we might see in the investigation of the Memphis killing is that the cops were used as tax collectors. “That sounds crazy, but a Dept. of Justice report on Ferguson showed that a lot of…
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Postscript
Wow! This Dude Has Moves!
Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
The Tyre Nichols Killing: Where Should the Conversation Start?
By now, most of America is familiar with the story of the five Memphis policemen that beat to death Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man who had been pulled over on Jan. 7 for “reckless driving.” When I saw the…
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News & Views
Bits and Pieces — February 3, 2023
Bits and Pieces A CEO’s Perspective Click here for an outlook on the US economy from Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht. Friend and colleague JS sent this in, saying, “Listen to this CEO as compared to what…
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Worth Watching
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Banshees of Inisherin Written and directed by Martin McDonagh Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan Released in theaters (US) Oct. 21, 2022 Available from several…
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A Word to the Wise
denouement
The denouement (day-NOO-mon) – from the French for the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and explained or resolved – literally means “untie the knot…
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Readers Write
Re my series on “The COVID Response
From JJ: “Mark, you may be partially right. More important, and probably more closely a cause of lower numbers in Africa: the widespread use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Both were shown to be highly…
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Postscript
Surprise Reunion
There are hundreds of YouTube videos on this theme, but this one is especially poignant/funny because of how old the granny is. Click here to watch.
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Notes From My Journal
On Saturday, We Hosted a Wedding at Paradise Palms…
It was for CF, a nephew, and his bride. There were about 150 people in attendance. It was held in a section of the gardens designed to be a venue for outdoor events like this. This was the second wedding held…
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News & Views
Five Quick Bits From “YouTube Shorts
Warren Buffett on Gold Years ago, when gold was trading in the $400s, I bought a fair amount. Enough to get my family through a complete economic collapse. I don’t regret that. But I can’t refute what Warren…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — January 31, 2023
Part X: Black Africa’s Great Numbers On Friday, I said I’d write about something that has puzzled me since I began tracking the COVID case and mortality data in the middle of 2020. If you believed what the WHO…
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Worth Reading
Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America
Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America By Hugh Eakin 480 pages 1st edition published July 12, 2022 Picasso’s War was recommended to me by DL, a fellow DM publisher and art collector that I’ve mentioned…
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Fun and/or Interesting
I Fell in Love with This Tune
I Thought It Was New – I Was Mistaken I’m accustomed to the digital media sites that I frequent feeding me news that appeals to my social interests and political prejudices. Likewise, with book recommendations…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Test Your Knowledge of America’s First Ladies
I did poorly on this online history test (16 out of 25). But I learned a lot. And some of the facts are surprising. Click here to try it.
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Postscript
YouTube Impressionists Who Sound Exactly Like The Originals
I went down another YouTube rabbit hole recently and found this gem: impressionists that sound exactly like the originals. Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
Let’s Talk About Guns and Politics and Zombies
SC and I were talking about guns. He wanted me to accompany him to a shooting range here in Delray Beach so I could try my hand at various handguns and rifles. I gave him my spiel… Many years ago, I saw a list…
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Worth Watching
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead Written and directed by George A. Romero Released in theaters July 3, 1985 Streaming Sept. 17, 2013 Currently available from various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime The…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — January 27, 2023
Part IX: China’s Bogus Claims In my last two blog posts, I wrote about how the WHO and the CDC rigged the records to exaggerate the number of COVID hospitalizations and deaths by 70% to 90% – and how the…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Alone
I’ve mentioned before that Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite poets. This is one of my favorite poems of his: Alone By Edgar Allan Poe From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were – I have not seen…
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Fun and/or Interesting
What the Heck Is Time?
The Ezra Klein Show is a podcast that I’ve been hearing a lot about, so I listened to it the other day. Klein has a smart, confident voice. He speaks with the intonation of a PBS host. I’ve never heard Malcolm…
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Inside Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens
Inside Paradise Palms' Rare Mangrove Fan Palm
The conservancy that I’m developing in West Delray Beach, FL, has one of the largest and best-curated palm tree collections in the world, as well as a growing collection of outdoor sculptures, a traditionally…
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Postscript
Charles Barkley points out another hypocrisy in Woke thinking…
Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
My First “Paycheck” Job
PP and I were reminiscing about some of the jobs we had in high school. This somehow led to a discussion of “How come kids don’t work hard today?” It got me thinking about my first job. Not the paper route I…
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A Word to the Wise
coup de grâce
A coup de grâce (koo duh GRAHS) – from the French – literally means “finishing blow.” It originally referred to a merciful action: putting a fatally wounded person out of their misery. But it has come to refer…
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Worth Considering
Is Biden Being Betrayed by His Own Party?
Are you ready for a new conspiracy theory? Something topical and wild? Something completely unbelievable? Something I’m sticking my neck way out to predict? Yes? Okay. Here goes... When Biden announced that he…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — January 24, 2023
Part VIII: More on the Accuracy of the Count In this series, I’m trying to cover the many ways the WHO, the CDC, our government, and the mainstream media responded badly – in some cases, almost hysterically –…
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Worth Reading
Is Mass Murder a Thing of the Past?
Bryan Kohberger, the man who murdered four University of Idaho students in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, has been charged. The police found lots of circumstantial evidence, including two eyewitness…
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Worth Watching
Two Classic Milton Friedman Video Clips
Two Classic Milton Friedman Video Clips Click here to watch the Nobel Prize-winning economist crush three questions from a member of the audience. And click here for his famous “greed is good” interview with…
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